Static pages managed through WordPress

From the About page:

“Pages allow you to manage non-blog content easily, so for example you could have a static “About” page that you manage through WordPress. For an idea of how powerful this is, the entire WordPress.org site could be run off WordPress alone.”

That’s what I want to do (but with a different site, of course). I want to set up a site for someone who has no knowledge of HTML or web development in a way that she can update (edit) the content any time herself. I want to make the blog fit into an existing non-blog template without the dates or other blog-like features; the page should look like a regular web page, but the main content willl be updated via WordPress “edit.”

I’ve figured out how to do this with one column on one page, but what if the page has 2 columns? And what about the second and third pages? How do I get only one blog entry to appear in each column and on each page? I’ve tried to use a PHP include for each column, but I don’t know the URL for just a post without the rest of the page. ??

I’ve been reading through this site and forum, and I’ve found some ideas that are close to what I’m looking for but not quite it. Someone before me must have done what I’m trying to do. Are step-by-step instructions for this written out anywhere?

Thanks for your help,
Lois